Cómo definimos nuestro trabajo
Términos como «violencia», «prevención», «seguridad» y «bienestar» pueden tener significados distintos según el contexto. Unas definiciones claras nos ayudan a comunicar hacia qué objetivos trabajamos, qué estudiamos y a qué nos referimos cuando hablamos de prevenir la violencia infantil.
Nuestras definiciones reflejan la investigación, la experiencia vivida, los conocimientos de la comunidad y lo que seguimos aprendiendo a través de nuestro trabajo. Es posible que evolucionen a medida que ese aprendizaje continúe.
Violencia infantil
En CSAW, utilizamos el término«violencia infantil» paradescribir las experiencias de violencia y daño que se producen desde el nacimiento hasta los 25 años.
Este rango de edad reconoce que el desarrollo continúa a lo largo de la adolescencia y hasta la edad adulta temprana. Además, nos permite tener en cuenta las experiencias a lo largo de un importante periodo de desarrollo, en lugar de trazar una línea divisoria clara entre la adolescencia y la edad adulta.
La violencia infantil incluye:
- Descuido
- Maltrato físico
- Maltrato emocional
- Abuso sexual
- Exposición a la violencia de pareja, lo que incluye ver u oír actos de violencia entre los cuidadores u otras personas del hogar
- Violencia basada en la identidad
Nuestra concepción de la violencia infantil es, de forma deliberada, más amplia que la del maltrato y el abandono infantil. La violencia puede darse en el seno de las familias y las relaciones, pero los jóvenes también sufren daños en los colegios, las organizaciones, las instituciones, las comunidades, los espacios públicos y otros entornos que marcan sus vidas.
Por lo tanto, para CSAW, comprender la violencia infantil requiere analizar no solo las experiencias individuales de daño, sino también las relaciones, los entornos, las instituciones y los sistemas que influyen en que los jóvenes experimenten seguridad, pertenencia, conexión, autonomía y bienestar. Nuestro trabajo se basa en la convicción de que la violencia infantil viene determinada por las condiciones que imperan en las comunidades en su conjunto, y no solo en los hogares de los niños.
Violencia basada en la identidad
La violencia basada en la identidad incluye el acoso escolar, el hostigamiento, la discriminación y otras formas de daño dirigidas hacia una persona debido a su identidad real o percibida, o a su pertenencia a un grupo.
Entre las numerosas formas de violencia basada en la identidad que sufren los jóvenes de Oregón, CSAW da prioridad a la comprensión y la prevención de los daños relacionados con:
- La raza
- Origen étnico
- Color
- La identidad de género y la expresión de género
- Origen nacional
- Religión
- Capacidad o discapacidad
- Orientación sexual
Es importante incluir la violencia basada en la identidad en nuestra definición porque las experiencias de seguridad y bienestar en la infancia están relacionadas con el sentido de pertenencia, la equidad y las condiciones sociales e institucionales a las que se enfrentan los jóvenes. El trabajo de CSAW reconoce que la violencia infantil se entrecruza con la marginación, el racismo, las condiciones socioeconómicas y otras desigualdades.
Por qué es importante nuestra definición
La forma en que definimos la violencia infantil determina cómo abordamos su prevención.
Una definición centrada únicamente en actos individuales de abuso puede dirigir la atención principalmente hacia la identificación del daño y la respuesta una vez que este se ha producido. Esas respuestas son esenciales. La CSAW también se pregunta qué se puede cambiarantes de que se produzca la violencia.
Esto implica estudiar las condiciones que rodean a los niños, los jóvenes, las familias, los centros educativos, las organizaciones y las comunidades. Las relaciones, el sentido de pertenencia, la conexión, la capacidad de acción, los recursos, las prácticas institucionales, los entornos comunitarios, las políticas y los sistemas pueden influir en las experiencias de seguridad y bienestar.
Esta visión más amplia nos ayuda a plantearnos un tipo diferente de pregunta sobre la prevención:
¿Qué condiciones podemos reforzar deliberadamente para que la violencia infantil sea menos probable y la seguridad y el bienestar sean más probables?
Esa pregunta vincula nuestra definición del problema con lo que CSAW se propone aprender y hacer.
Definitions & Key Concepts
Words like violence, prevention, safety, and wellbeing can mean different things in different settings. Clear definitions help us communicate what we are working toward, what we study, and what we mean when we talk about preventing childhood violence.
Our definitions reflect research, lived experience, community knowledge, and what we continue to learn through our work. They may evolve as that learning continues.
Understanding Childhood Violence
Understanding Prevention and Wellbeing
Approaches That Guide Our Work
Why Our Definition Matters
How we define childhood violence shapes how we approach its prevention.
A definition focused only on individual acts of abuse can direct attention primarily toward identifying harm and responding after it occurs. Those responses are essential. CSAW also asks what can be changed before violence occurs.
That means studying the conditions surrounding children, youth, families, schools, organizations, and communities. Relationships, belonging, connection, agency, resources, institutional practices, community environments, policies, and systems can all shape experiences of safety and wellbeing.
This broader view helps us ask a different kind of prevention question:
What conditions can we deliberately strengthen so that childhood violence becomes less likely and safety and wellbeing become more likely?
That question connects how we define the problem with what CSAW exists to learn and do.
Childhood Violence
At CSAW, we use childhood violence to describe experiences of violence and harm occurring from birth through age 25.
This age range recognizes that development continues through adolescence and into young adulthood. It also allows us to consider experiences across an important developmental period rather than drawing a sharp boundary between adolescence and adulthood.
Childhood violence includes:
- Neglect
- Physical abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Exposure to intimate partner violence, including seeing or hearing violence between caregivers or other people in the home
- Identity-based violence
Our understanding of childhood violence is intentionally broader than child abuse and neglect. Violence can occur within families and relationships, but young people also experience harm in schools, organizations, institutions, communities, public spaces, and other environments that shape their lives.
For CSAW, understanding childhood violence therefore requires looking not only at individual experiences of harm, but also at the relationships, environments, institutions, and systems that influence whether young people experience safety, belonging, connection, agency, and wellbeing. Our work is grounded in the belief that childhood violence is shaped by conditions throughout communities—not only within children's homes.
Physical Abuse
Physical abuse includes intentional physical harm by a parent or other adult. Behaviors include kicking, aggressive shaking, striking the head, hitting with an object, repeated hitting or beating, choking, burning or scalding, using substances such as hot pepper or soap to cause pain, restraining or tying a youth, forcing painful bodily positions, and other adult hitting, punching, kicking, beating, or serious physical injury. Note: Excludes spanking.
Illustrative OCAPS Questions
- How often has a parent or adult in your home ever hit, beat, kick, or physically hurt you in any way? Do not include spanking.
- Did an adult ever beat you up, hit you on the head or face, choke you, or burn you?
- Has an adult choked you to prevent you from breathing?
Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse includes verbal and psychological mistreatment by parents, caregivers, or others, including insults, humiliation, threats, rejection, intimidation, and behaviors intended to cause fear, shame, or emotional distress. OCAPS measures experiences such as being yelled at, demeaned, publicly embarrassed, threatened with harm or abandonment, deliberately isolated from other children, or subjected to expressions of hatred or rejection by parents or caregivers.
Illustrative OCAPS Questions
- Did any of your parents insult you, humiliate you, or call you hurtful names?
- Did any of your parents tell you they hated you, didn’t love you, wished you were dead or had never been born?
- In the past year, has anyone threatened to leave or abandon you?
Bullying
Repeated peer behavior intended to tease, threaten, spread rumors about, hit, shove, or otherwise hurt another youth, including both in-person and technology-mediated bullying. OCAPS captures bullying at or around school for reasons including identity, physical characteristics, peer group, unwanted sexual attention, and other reasons, as well as electronic bullying and threats with a gun by a student or peer on school property.
Illustrative OCAPS Questions
- Have you been bullied by another student using any kind of technology, such as texting, the internet, or apps?
- Have you been bullied about your weight, clothes, acne, or other physical characteristics?
- Has a student or peer threatened you with a gun on school property?
Dating Violence
Physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, or technology-facilitated harm by a romantic or dating partner or someone the youth was hooking up with, including unwanted sexual pressure, physical harm or restraint, hurtful verbal treatment, controlling or manipulative behavior, and digital monitoring, control, humiliation, or shaming.
Illustrative OCAPS Questions
- Have you ever been pressured into any sexual activity that you did not want by someone you were dating or hooking up with?
- Did someone you were dating or hooking up with ever physically hurt you?
- Has someone you were dating or hooking up with ever used your phone, social media, or other technology to control or monitor you or shame or embarrass you with something you shared privately?
HAVE/IPV (Household Adult Violence Exposure / Intimate Partner Violence)
HAVE/IPV captures youth exposure to threatening, controlling, aggressive, or violent behavior between parents, caregivers, or other adults in the home. It has two subcategories:
- Physical HAVE/IPV includes witnessing adults physically hurt one another; seeing weapons or objects used to hurt or frighten someone in the home; witnessing slapping, hitting, kicking, punching, choking, or beating between adults; and exposure to physically intimidating acts during conflict, such as damaging property or pets, punching walls, or throwing objects.
- Emotional HAVE/IPV includes witnessing frightening shouting or screaming between adults; serious threats by one parent to hurt another; intimidation or coercive control of a parent, including verbal, sexual, financial, or social control; and threats by a parent or caregiver to kill themselves or a family member.
Illustrative OCAPS Questions
- Did you ever see or hear one of your parents intimidate or control your other parent?
- Have you seen adults in your home hurt each other physically?
- Did you ever see or hear one of your parents get pushed, hit, choked, or beaten up by your other parent or their partner?
Contact sexual abuse
Contact sexual abuse includes attempted or completed forced sexual activity and unwanted sexual touching, including someone touching the youth's private parts or making the youth touch another person's private parts. It also includes sexual touching or forced intercourse by an adult or someone at least five years older.
Illustrative OCAPS Questions
- Did anyone ever try to force you to have sex, even if it didn’t happen?
- Did anyone ever touch your private parts when they shouldn’t have, or make you touch their private parts?
- Did anyone ever force you to have sex?
Non-contact sexual abuse
Non-contact sexual abuse includes victimization that does not require physical sexual contact. This encompasses being made to view sexual images or videos; being photographed or recorded in sexual circumstances; offensive or intimidating sexual communication or behavior; being made to view another person's private parts or expose one's own; nonconsensual sharing of sexual images; sexual requests from adults through digital technology; threats or coercion intended to make the youth do something sexual; and creation or sharing of fake, AI-generated, or deepfake sexual images.
Illustrative OCAPS Questions
- Has anyone made you watch a sex video or look at sexual pictures in a way that made you feel uncomfortable?
- Did anyone ever make you look at their private parts or look at yours when they shouldn’t have?
- Did anyone ever use the internet or a mobile phone to share sexual images of you without your consent?
Identity-Based Violence
Identity-based violence includes harm directed toward a youth because of an actual or perceived aspect of their identity, including race or ethnicity, skin color or culture, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or spirituality, or disability. It includes identity-based bullying or hurtful comments, as well as insults, humiliation, restriction of basic needs, physical violence, or sexual coercion linked to gender identity or sexual orientation.
Among the many forms of identity-based violence experienced by Oregon youth, CSAW prioritizes understanding and preventing harm related to:
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Color
- Gender identity and gender expression
- National origin
- Religion
- Ability or disability
- Sexual orientation
Illustrative Identity-based OCAPS Questions
- Have you ever been bullied about your race or ethnic origin?
- Have you ever been bullied about your sexual orientation?
- Has anyone referred to your skin color, gender, religion, or culture in a hurtful way?
Including identity-based violence in our definition matters because experiences of childhood safety and wellbeing are connected to belonging, equity, and the social and institutional conditions young people encounter. CSAW's work recognizes that childhood violence intersects with marginalization, racism, socioeconomic conditions, and other inequities.
Neglect
Neglect includes acts of omission, i.e., lack of provision of basic physical, environmental, and medical needs. This includes insufficient food or drink; an often unsafe or unhealthy home environment; failure to provide regular meals, bathing or showering, or clean clothing; and failure by a parent to obtain or provide necessary medical care when the youth was sick or injured.
Illustrative OCAPS Questions
- Was your home often unsafe or unhealthy?
- Were you often not provided with regular meals, baths or showers, or clean clothes?
- When you were sick or injured, did your parent ever fail to get you medical care or take care of you?
Primary Prevention
Primary prevention focuses on preventing violence before it occurs by strengthening the conditions that support safety and wellbeing.
Rather than waiting until harm has happened, primary prevention asks what can be changed in relationships, organizations, communities, policies, and systems to make violence less likely.
At CSAW, this includes learning how belonging, connection, agency, supportive environments, and equitable access to resources can contribute to childhood safety and wellbeing.
Theory of Change
A theory of change describes how and why particular activities or changes are expected to contribute to a desired outcome.
It makes the connections between a goal, the conditions that need to change, the actions intended to support those changes, and the evidence used to understand progress.
In prevention work, a theory of change helps partners clarify their assumptions, learn from what happens, and adapt their approaches over time.
Accessibility
Accessibility means designing information, environments, activities, and opportunities so that people with different abilities and access needs can participate meaningfully.
Accessibility can involve physical spaces, digital content, communication formats, language access, scheduling, and other aspects of participation.
In CSAW's work, attention to accessibility helps identify and reduce barriers to participation in research, learning, and community collaboration.
Cultural Humility
Cultural humility is an ongoing practice of self-reflection, learning, and recognizing how our experiences, assumptions, and positions of power shape our interactions with others.
It involves approaching people and communities with curiosity and respect, recognizing that no one can become an expert in another person's lived experience.
Cultural humility supports partnerships in which community knowledge is valued and people have meaningful opportunities to shape decisions that affect them.
Trauma-Informed Practices
Trauma-informed practices recognize that experiences of trauma can influence how people feel, learn, build relationships, and interact with organizations and systems.
These practices seek to create environments that support physical and emotional safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment while reducing the risk of retraumatization.
For CSAW, trauma-informed approaches can inform how schools, organizations, and communities create supportive conditions for children, young people, families, and the people who work alongside them.
